The present invention relates to an apparatus for shearing possibly contaminated tubular members, whereby they are cut into sections of limited length.
In per se known manner, shearing means generally comprise a confinement cell, in which is arranged a chassis supporting at least one fixed counterblade, at least one side-clamping carriage able to engage an assembly to be sheared with the counterblade and at least one blade holder carriage able to move in a direction perpendicular to the counterblade in order to shear said assembly.
These shearing means require relatively frequent operational interventions, in particular for replacing worn parts, such as the blade and counterblade. Moreover, these interventions have to be carried out whilst preserving the confinement and whilst preventing to the maximum possible extent any dispersion of the contamination.
In the hitherto existing shearing means, any operational intervention requires the disassembly of a cover covering the upper ends of the chassis, in order to give access to worn parts and particular the blade and counterblade. The intervention time is particularly long, because these operations have to be carried out remotely, e.g. using manipulators. This long operational intervention time is all the more prejudicial in view of the fact that the shearing means generally constitute one of the stations of an irradiated fuel processing line and the complete line then has to be stopped.
Moreover, these operational interventions involve the dismantling of the cover, which normally tightly seals the chassis. This has the effect of contaminating the complete confinement enclosure and all the equipment contained therein, which is obviously undesirable.